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Anton Newcombe
Anton Newcombe performing with BJM (photo by Scott Dudelson)
Background information
Birth name	Anton Alfred Newcombe
Born	August 29, 1967 (1967-08-29) (age 42)
Origin	Newport Beach, California, United States
Genres	Neo-psychedelic rock
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Bomp! Records, TVT Records, Tee Pee Records, A Records, 12 Tonar

Anton Alfred Newcombe (born August 29, 1967, Newport Beach, California) is a singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist and founder, lead singer, guitarist, and head of the neo-psychedelic rock band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Music

A multi-instrumentalist, Newcombe has claimed to play over 80 musical instruments.^[1]. Instruments that he has been credited as playing on albums or has been observed to play are the guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, sitar, tambura, moog synthesizer, mellotron, piano, accordion, organ, drums, cello, koto, samisen, mandolin, lute, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, and harmonica. Newcombe writes most of The Brian Jonestown Massacre's songs, though until the departure of band member Matt Hollywood, some of the band's songs were Hollywood's compositions. Newcombe is also heavily involved in post-production of his albums, often engineering and mixing them on his own. A prolific artist, he authored over 150 songs in a fifteen year period.^[2] He founded The Brian Jonestown Massacre in San Francisco, California, in 1990. Core members in the early years of the band were Matt Hollywood, Jeffrey Davies, Joel Gion, Travis Threlkel, Patrick Straczek, Ricky Maymi, Brian Glaze, Mike Whitemann, Mike Sharperson and Dean Taylor, though the line up was subject to frequent changes. The Brian Jonestown Massacre broke-up in 1997 due to differing views and Anton's legendary fights with members of the band/audience. He has been touring the world with a new group of musicians under the same moniker, The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Newcombe has also worked with fellow 1960s revivalist bands, most notably The Dandy Warhols, The High Dials, The Manvils, Innaway, and The Quarter After. He also recorded and produced the indie rock group Dead Meadow's album Got Live if You Want It.

He has cited as some of his musical influences The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Elvis, Donovan, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Love (band), Simon & Garfunkel, The Smiths and Elliott Smith. He is known for his eclectic musical tastes, and reportedly has a vast collection of world music, including Indian, Arabic, and Spanish.

The Committee to Keep Music Evil

Newcombe founded his own record label which has released albums by The Brian Jonestown Massacre (Bravery, Repetition and Noise and the re-release of Spacegirl and Other Favourites), The Lovetones (Be What You Want), and Dead Meadow (Got Live if You Want It). According to the official website, the purpose of the label is to "...release BJM music not available through other channels, and to record new bands which we will be producing from time to time, while pursuing the goal of making the world unsafe for rock and roll".^[3] Many of the releases on this label are produced or engineered by Rob Campanella.

Personal life

Newcombe has one child, a son (Hermann Oliver Vessey), by the actress Tricia Vessey. Newcombe has battled heroin addiction, which played a role in a documentary about his band in the film Dig!.^[4] Chris Nashawaty, writing a review of the film for Entertainment Weekly, stated that in the documentary Newcombe came across as "deeply troubled, drug-addicted, often downright scary."^[4]

References

External links

• Official Band Website
• Guardian Interview with Anton Newcombe
• BJM Archives
• Interview with Anton, February 2008, roomthirteen.com
• Interview with Anton Newcombe for Aloud.com, March 2008
• Rehearsal Space: Anton Newcombe - a 2008 video featurette
• Anton Newcombe Article 2009

From Wikiquote

Anton Alfred Newcombe (born August 29, 1967) is the founder, lead singer, lead guitarist, and head of the neo-psychedelic rock band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Unsourced

• God knows I do the best I can, so fuck everything.

• I, Anton A. Newcombe, do solemnly swear that the ghost of Brian Jones came to me in the studio and asked me to make this record. P.S. he also asked that I should kick the shit out of old Mick & Keith for ripping off his band, girl and money, having him murdered, being glad he's dead, and not being very nice people.

• I don't want a fuckin' hooligan as my governor, I don't care if he's a billionaire. And he says things like, ‘I want the children of California to have a wonderful upbringing like I had.' Dude, your dad was in the fucking SS! What, was he dragging people to the fuckin' gas chamber? That's a valid point.

• If you're so tired we can order an ice cream cake, we can have it delived to the stage.
  • Addressing his drummer

• People talk about Eric Clapton. What has he ever done except throw his baby off a fuckin' ledge and write a song about it?

• What I want to do is enter the popular lexicon. Like Jimi Hendrix. That's my goal. Not to sell soap. Not to say, 'Look like me, dress like me, sound like me.' Not to get a supermodel girlfriend. None of that shit. I want people to come away from what I'm doing and look at it as a gift.

• What am I drinking? The sweat off fucking baby Jesus' loins for all you know.

• Yeah, we're going to play a great song for you. As soon as Jon Bon Jovi over there shuts the fuck up.

• You know why Guns n' Roses aren't a good band? Because no black people listen to them.

• Interviewer: Is it important for you to be understood?
  Anton: That would depend on the context of your question. If I was speaking to a doctor, for instance, and describing a medical condition, I would surely want to be understood. On the other hand, if I was creating a secret code, depending on the situation, then I would hope that certain people would not understand anything.

• The only thing you find in the middle of the road are dead animals and dumb Americans.

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Anton Newcombe